Israel Wages Cyber War With Hamas as Civilians Take Up Computers

Knowledge of computer code is proving to be as important to Israel’s conflict with Hamas as the Iron Dome system intercepting rockets from the Gaza Strip. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Knowledge of computer code is
proving to be as important to Israel’s conflict with Hamas as
the Iron Dome system intercepting rockets from the Gaza Strip.

In a government building in Jerusalem, technicians in
civilian clothes sit in front of a bank of screens, trying to
deflect millions of attempted attacks on Israel’s government
websites. A map on the wall shows sites where virtual attacks
are being carried out around the world, updating every few
seconds. Israel and the Palestinian territories stand out with a
big red flame. Extra workers are drafted in.

“From the very beginning, we called on Palestinian
software technicians in Gaza and all over the world to use
technology to undermine Israeli websites and pages,” Islam
Shahwan, the spokesman for the Hamas Ministry of Interior in
Gaza, said in an interview from the enclave.

The clicking of keyboards and mice has already become a
hallmark of the conflict’s latest flare up that started on Nov.
14 as much as the sound of rocket fire. Aided by supporters
abroad and speedy Internet access, the virtual battle is
intensifying in tandem with the air attacks as Israelis and
Palestinians try to disrupt the flow of information and hack
each other’s propaganda machines.

More than 44 million attempts were made to bring down state
websites, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Nov. 18,
standing in the government’s cyber war-room.

“Beyond the main military battlefield, there is a
secondary arena,” Steinitz said. “Israel has been under
unprecedented cyber attack.”

Connection Cut

An Israeli air strike on Nov. 19 hit a 15-floor office
building in downtown Gaza City used by the television stations
of Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the
U.S. and European Union, and Islamic Jihad. The second floor of
the complex that houses an Internet and computer services
company was also damaged, cutting connection to subscribers.

The building was targeted because of the presence of senior
terrorist members there, Israeli army spokeswoman Avital
Leibovich said. One of the militants killed in the assault was
Ramez Harb, head of Islamic Jihad’s media operations, who Israel
said was responsible for propaganda for the group.

Its armed wing, called Saraya al-Quds Brigades, said on its
website on Nov. 17 that its intelligence department “managed to
penetrate data for 5,000 cellular phones belonging to senior
Israeli army officers and got their personal data.”

The group used the mined information to send warnings via
text message, saying “we will make Gaza a graveyard for you and
your soldiers and we will turn Tel Aviv in to a massive flame,”
according to the website.

Gaza Defense

Cyber-war is one way Gazans can defend themselves,
according to Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, ending a
partnership government with Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas a year after winning parliamentary elections.
Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel or any prior peace agreements.

“We are seeing a concentrated effort to attack Israeli
sites,” said Gabi Siboni, head of the cyber warfare program at
the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “When
they succeed with the denial-of-service attacks of government
websites, they might put substantial effort into trying to
penetrate operational systems and critical infrastructure.”

Such denial-of-service attacks overwhelm websites with
requests until they shut down.

Tit-for-Tat

Many of the barrages on Israeli sites originated from
abroad, including the U.S. and Europe, as pro-Palestinian
activists joined in, said Finance Minister Steinitz. Others come
from the West Bank, Gaza, or Israeli computers on which stealth
programs have been installed so they can be controlled remotely,
said Ofir Ben-Avi, director of Israel’s e-government.

Hamas also wasn’t immune from attack. The Hamas Interior
Ministry said on Nov. 18 by text message that Israeli hackers
had penetrated and paralyzed its site, and told Gaza residents
to seek necessary information on its Facebook page.

The same day, an Israeli speaking broken Arabic on behalf
of the Israeli army cut into the transmissions of Hamas and
Islamic Jihad radio stations to warn Gaza residents to “keep
away from Hamas infrastructure and don’t help the terrorists.”

“Sometimes we take control of radio stations and give
recorded messages,” said Leibovich, the Israeli army
spokeswoman. “One message we convey is that people should stay
away from areas in which Hamas operates.”

Causing Fear

Attacks over the Internet are designed to cause fear, said
Gabi Weimann, a professor of communications at Haifa University
and author of the 2005 book “Terror on the Internet: The New
Arena, The New Challenges.”

“The point is to show we are powerful enough to take over
your media, break into your websites,” Weimann said by
telephone. “You should be frightened, is the message.”

So far, only one of the attack attempts succeeded in
bringing down an Israeli government site and that was only for a
few minutes, Steinitz said. Most were deflected by software
working automatically, others were stopped manually, said
Carmela Avner, responsible for the security of the government
Internet infrastructure hosted at the Finance Ministry.

Most of the assaults were primarily unsophisticated,
denial-of-service efforts, though there is “a pattern of
increasing sophisticated attacks,” she said.

Cyber Defense

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the
Jewish state must develop a defense system against cyber
assaults, similar to that of the Iron Dome, the missile defense
system that has intercepted more than a third of all rockets
fired at Israel from Gaza in recent days.

With companies like Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
and soldiers who exit intelligence units, Israel is aiming to
become a leader in cyber defense. Rated one of three countries
best prepared to withstand digital attacks in a McAfee study,
Israel is pouring resources into cyber warfare.

Netanyahu established a National Cyber Bureau this year and
alloted 80 million shekels ($20 million) this month to a program
aimed at advancing research and development for cyber security.

Iran has accused Israel and the U.S. of trying to sabotage
its nuclear program through a virus known as Stuxnet. The U.S.
is leading economic sanctions aimed at preventing the
development of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Siboni at the
Institute for National Security Studies said Iranians may be
involved in the current coordinated assault.

“I’m sure everybody that has an interest in harming Israel
has increased that interest in the past week,” he said.